nd the Congested Districts Board for the purchase and resale
of certain classes of estates--land in congested districts, untenanted
land, etc.

The Act was enormously popular. The landlord, in view of the manifold
insecurities of land tenure in Ireland, made an excellent bargain, and
the tenant, tempted by the immediate transformation of his rent into an
annuity of reduced amount, ignored the extension by twenty years of the
period of redemption, and was willing to agree at high prices for the
purchase of his land. The average price of land sold rose from the
seventeen and a half years' purchase under the old Acts to over twenty
years' purchase, and the soil of Ireland rapidly began to change hands.
But the Act broke down on finance, as adapted to what were then
estimated as the requirements of the purchase operation. The estimate
for the total sum required was one hundred millions, and the purchase
money was to be raised by successive issues of 2-3/4 per cent.
Guaranteed Land Stock. Sums needed from time to time for payment of the
landlord's bonus were also raised by stock, and were placed to an
account known as the Land Purchase Aid Fund.

Now, any loss on flotation, due to stock being issued at a discount, was
to be borne, in the first instance, by the Ireland Development
Grant,[155] and, if and when that was exhausted, by the ratepayers of
Ireland through deduction from the grants in aid of Local Taxation.[156]
The stock, like all Government stocks at that period, fell heavily from
the first, and in 1908 the point was reached when further issues would
have entailed a heavy loss payable out of Irish rates, growing
ultimately, as it was calculated, to an annual charge of more than half
a million. The infliction of such a burden upon the ratepayers of
Ireland was felt to be inequitable. Ireland was not responsible for the
evils which necessitated purchase, and even if she were, the ratepayers
were not the right persons to be mulcted. Meanwhile, purchase was at a
complete standstill.

4. This serious situation led to Mr. Birrell's Land Act of 1909, which
was based upon the Report of a Treasury Committee which sat in the
previous year.[157] The problem was twofold: (a) how to deal with future
agreements to purchase, between landlord and tenant;(6) how to deal with
agreements to purchase pending under the Act of 1903, but as yet
uncompleted.

(a) With regard to future agreements, there are four main points:(1) The
ol